In tolerable weather we started as usual from Sindangbarang. The routes to Tanggeng, much ruined by the continuing rain, still made it very difficult for our horses. Part of the route — the steep descent down the last ridge — we had to complete on foot as the horses managed to climb down only without load.

The arduous ride was more than compensated by the joys of seeing the splendid landscape again. At the border of the districts of Tjidamar and Djampang wetan we said affectionately good-bye to the chief of the former district; the territory of this dignitary did not offer us much in hunting terms at Tjipandak but he himself had been very courteous and had performed admirably namely in the organization of the hunt.

During our entrance on horses in Tanggeng the sky changed menacingly and soon opened up all sluices; the rain poured down more heavily than we had up to now seen. The flood fell upon the earth no longer in drops but in thick jets, in a moment everything was under water. Around our house a deep lake formed itself. The streams and rivers rose mightily in a short time.

When the storm began the coolies who had been sent ahead with the baggage had already marched beyond Tanggeng and we lamented that probably all our objects, all rifles and catridges would become completely wet. Furthermore Mr. Kerkhoven voiced concerns that the carriers would be unable to wade through the two rivers as the crossing had already proved difficult on our ride to the coast. In fact part of the coolies returned in the evening — the rain still had not diminished in intensity— with completely wet baggage to Tanggeng; the carriers explained that the first river to be crossed had risen so much that it was impossible to cross it. The other part of the coolies that had set out earlier had still managed to cross this river.

Now it was hard to know what to do; as under such circumstances we couldn’t cross the river on horses either. A longer stay in Tanggeng, however, would disrupt the whole planning of the journey, as the next day a special train would be waiting at Tjibeber station and a dinner with the governor general was planned as well as „Elisabeth“ was to be ready to depart under steam in the harbor of Tandjong Priok. But we could not inform anyone of them, neither the railway director, nor the governor nor the ship captain as we were cut off from Tjibeber and thus from Buitenzorg and Batavia. As the railway lines on Java close down for the night at the approach of darkness — there are no night trains here — the third hour in the afternoon would be the latest time of departure for the special train out of Tjibeber. In order to arrive at that time in Tjibeber we would have to ride 47 km on horseback from Tanggeng to the station just mentioned and be ready to depart from Tanggeng at 3 o’clock in the morning which currently seemed impossible.

Thus we sat on the veranda of our inn in a very depressed mood during the whole evening and constantly observed the weather with the same result every time as it was continuously raining heavily and the roaring of the river close by was increasing more and more.

Our mood became worse when Mr. Kerkhoven told uus that the baggage would not reach the train station in time even if we managed to reach Tjibeber on horses the next day. Finally we had seen enough of the weather and went to sleep.

Links

• Location: Tanggeng, Indonesia
• ANNO – on 25.04.1893 in Austria’s newspapers.
• The k.u.k. Hof-Burgtheater is playing „Rosenkranz und Güldenstern“, while the k.u.k. Hof-Operntheater is performing the opera „Der Prophet“.